Efficient and successful farming operations require careful cultivation of the soil between the rows of planted or growing crop. For example, the soil must be aerated or rearranged and residues from prior crops remaining in the field must be cut or mulched. Weed populations must be controlled by uprooting or cutting beneath the ground level.
Field cultivators, and/or chisel plows, are conventional soil-working implements, which are typically equipped with shanks, often called tines, to which the soil-engaging components, usually called sweeps or shovels, are attached.
Historically, row-upon-row of a plurality of the shovel (or sweep) elements have been fastened to respective shanks of conventional soil-engaging implements and held in place by one or more fasteners, such as plow bolts. Two such bolts are generally used. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,461 to Cochrane, assigned to Case Corporation.
While chisel plows are mostly used for primary tillage, field cultivators are used for secondary tillage, seed-bed preparation, weed control and incorporation of chemicals.
Since a function of the sweeps is to work the ground, it can be appreciated that when in use, the sweeps and bolts are typically submerged in soil as they are urged by the shanks, which are typically made of heat-treated spring steel, to pass through the soil.
Abrasive soils, such as sandy or rocky soils, cause shovels as well as plow bolts to wear out sooner than would be the case if the soil did not contain abrasive components.
Moreover, when sizable rocks are met, considerable damage can result to sweeps as well as to plow bolts.
Accordingly, the quick and efficient changing of sweeps and/or plow bolts is a matter of concern to conventional farmers because such changes, with state-of-the-art technology, is both time consuming and labor intensive.
"Knock-on" sweeps, which rely on mated tapered surfaces portions of a shank and a shovel to hold the shovel on the shank, have used at least one pin to temporarily hold the sweep onto the shank. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,796 to Buescher.
Moreover, in recent years, "knock-on" sweeps have been developed in various configurations. Usually, current sweep designs do not require the use of any fasteners. Rather, the sweep is driven by impact force onto a tapered adaptor which is fastened to the shank. In an alternative design, the shank itself is tapered to accept the sweep.
While some of the state-of-the-art sweep/shovel element designs offer secondary fastening mechanisms including pins, hooks, and so forth, most "knock-on" sweep/shovel elements rely strictly on the friction between two conventionally-matched steel parts.
As noted above, soil-engaging components, especially shovels and plow bolts, are usually made of a durable, economical metal; and steel is typically the metal of choice.
Due to unavoidable manufacturing variations, inadvertent sweep mis-installation, and/or currently ineffective sweep-attachment design, the reliability and performance of state-of-the-art "knock-on" sweeps is not satisfactory to reputable agricultural implement manufacturers!
Presently, too many sweeps fall off due to looseness and/or vibration and are lost. Occasionally, those that are not lost may become imbedded in a tractor tire.
In the 1,000 to 5,000 acre fields of the Dakotas, for example, such failure of shovels to remain attached to shanks, especially during 14-hour days when farmers are concerned with meeting planting and/or harvesting deadlines, can result in catastrophic effects.
The present invention, however, solves the "problem" of the shovels (or sweeps) falling off undesirably from their associated shanks of current soil-engaging implements.
The sweep-attachment design of the invention, described in full below, has overcome the shortcomings of the prior art sweep-attachment designs by incorporating relatively-stiff elastomeric materials, such as commercially-available, pliable thermoplastic polymeric elements made of rubber into the sweep-attachment design.
A preferred embodiment of the invention, illustrated herein, presents the novel elastomeric element as releasably retained in a recess of an adapter element which in turn is releasably attached to an associated shank. In this way, the attached shovel is not only held firmly in place for as long as desired, but also manufacturing variations are bridged and any looseness or vibration is avoided.
The adaptor disclosed and described herein is especially designed to fit shanks which are either curved or straight in their sweep-attaching area. The step of attaching a "knock-on" type sweep (or shovel) element to a shank of current agricultural implements is often rather difficult.
To overcome any such problem, a special, suitable tool (illustrated herein) is used to enable quick-attachment of a sweep element to an associated shank in a matter of seconds and with very little effort.